The success of this week’s 2014 Battle of Malta poker tournament can be gauged by the impressive 1,447 entries for the main event, which was effectively a heads up draw in a finale ultimately terminated by the clock…the tourney simply ran out of time at 5am the next day.
Local player James Brincat and Bulgarian pro Antoan Katsarov fought it out to the last minute before agreeing a two-way chop and a chip count decision that gave Katsarov the honours and Euro 122,750, and Brincat banking Euro 107,250.
The tournament director warned the 12 players still standing at 8pm on the previous evening that they were in danger of running out of time, giving them the option of halting play and returning the next day, but the players rejected the idea and played on with the understanding that 5am the next morning would be the absolute end.
Pay-outs to the other final table players looked like this:
Pär Ebenhardt, Sweden Euro 53,000
Oskar Szwed, Poland Euro 42,500
Hugo Lemaire, France Euro 32,000
Declan Connolly, Ireland Euro 23,000
Pontus Dargren, Sweden Euro 16,095
Johan Krans, Sweden Euro 12,100
Wouter Beumers, Netherlands Euro 9,100